Ben Affleck

As Ben Affleck’s “Argo” effectively demonstrated, movies based on real-life events such as the 444-day Iran hostage crisis can be every bit as tensely unpredictable and thoroughly entertaining as their entirely fictional counterparts.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the considerably less compelling “6 Days,” a stiffly executed re-creation of the events surrounding the 1980 hostage-taking attack on London’s Iranian Embassy that packs all the high-stakes intrigue of a filed police report.

On March 30 of that year, as the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was closing in on its sixth month, a half-dozen heavily armed Iranian Arab gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in...

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As Ben Affleck’s “Argo” effectively demonstrated, movies based on real-life events such as the 444-day Iran hostage crisis can be every bit as tensely unpredictable and thoroughly entertaining as their entirely fictional counterparts.
The same,...

The squad played an action-packed "Justice League" trailer for the capacity crowd and briefly addressed the exit of director Zack Snyder, who handed the reins of finishing the film after a family tragedy to "Avengers" director Joss Whedon."Joss is a great...

Ben Affleck might have a new leading lady in his life.The "Justice League" star is rumored to be dating "Saturday Night Live" producer Lindsay Shookus, according to several reports out Friday.Per E! News, which was first with a report of the romance,...

I will begin this appreciation of the actor Adam West, who died Friday at the age of 88, with an apology. What follows will largely be about "Batman," the role that half a century ago defined and to some extent constrained West's career, and will now...

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Mountain Men Tom Oar, Marty Meierotto and Eustace Conway are back as this unscripted series returns for a new season, starting with a clip show featuring highlights from the first chilly winter, followed by the second-season premiere. 8...

Can new jokes and three new DC superheroes make audiences fall in love with the new “Justice League” movie? Warner Bros. certainly hopes so. Check out the brand new hyper-styled and action-packed new trailer for the all-star superhero team-up.
Wonder...

Ending weeks of speculation and swirling rumors about the future of one of its most important comic book franchises, Warner Bros. announced that director Matt Reeves — whose films include “Cloverfield,” “Let Me In” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”...

Kevin Bacon pops up in the large-ensemble “Patriots Day,” which failed to gain traction in the annual movie awards race. Still, his welcome appearance gives pause to revive his namesake “Six Degrees of Separation” parlor game. And what better time to play...

Only three movies have won the best picture Oscar without their directors being nominated. And, yes, one of those rare occasions happened just four years ago when “Argo” took the Oscar in the time of the Great Ben Affleck Snub. But let’s be clear. It...

Ben Affleck, who was set to star in and direct a planned solo Batman movie for Warner Bros., has decided not to helm the project after all, though he remains committed to reprise his role as the Dark Knight.
“There are certain characters who hold a...

What actor doesn’t want to be cast against type? In the case of Chris Messina, his role in the screen adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Prohibition-era bestselling novel “Live by Night” should help put distance between him and Danny Castellano, the lovably...

What actor doesn’t want to be cast against type? In the case of Chris Messina, his role in the screen adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Prohibition-era bestselling novel “Live by Night” should help put distance between him and Danny Castellano, the lovably...

What’s more certain than “La La Land” winning the Golden Globe for best picture comedy/musical? One thing: That, with Jimmy Fallon hosting, the show itself will be a lot less snarky than the last several editions.
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First the Stallone sisters made the Miss Golden Globe gig into a sister act, and now the Affleck brothers are doing the same for 73rd Golden Globes presenters. Ben Affleck, a two-time Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee, will join younger brother...

When Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the fourth (and, hopefully, not final) time last year, he joked that the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. threatened to personally pull him off the stage if he said anything “offensive or...

Ben Affleck is apparently at war with Ben Affleck. It is rare to come across someone with such gifts as both an actor and a director who struggles so much when it comes to directing himself as an actor. The new “Live by Night” finds him pulled in so...

On a blustery early-December afternoon in Santa Monica, Ben Affleck sat on the rooftop of Pearl Street Films, the production company he founded with Matt Damon, having just come out of a script meeting for a planned solo Batman movie.
Affleck is set...

Oscar campaigns are always as much about managing expectations as they are about the films themselves.
Case in point: Talking the other night about his throwback gangster picture, “Live by Night,” Ben Affleck explained, “This wasn’t a movie where I...

The last time a Republican won the White House but lost the popular vote, the Oscars tilted toward escapist fare. Will history repeat itself 16 years later?
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